China's Week, June 29

Fusion in a suitcase? The fastest, most efficient IC ever. A billion 5G connections. Silicon photonic chip. The shou-fang cycle. Artillery-launched drones. 'Don't let your kids study abroad'.

Science & Technology

A satellite transmitted data 5x faster than Starlink from 36,000 km–60x higher than Starlink–using a 2W laser (as strong as a nightlight) by combining Adaptive Optics (AO) and Mode Diversity Reception (MDR) to sharpen and stabilize the laser signal.

NPU flew its hypersonic Feitian 2 with a rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine using a kerosene-hydrogen peroxide propellant, reducing the vehicle’s weight and boosting payload.

The first controlled nuclear fusion in a device the size of a small suitcase uses just 10W DC to produce 1MV nanosecond pulses. Big for science, industry, defense.

A suitcase-sized, 2 kW fibre laser works from -50ºC to +50ºC without heating or cooling. Disables drones 1 km away. Competitors are conainer-size.

Huawei has built a full AI stack, a feat no other company, including Nvidia and TSMC, has achieved and which Nvidia’s Jensen Huang publicly acknowledged.

Peking U built the first two-dimensional, low-power GAAFET transistor, a "wafer-scale multi-layer-stacked single-crystalline 2D GAA configuration, it is the fastest, most efficient transistor ever".

Fudan’s silicon photonic integrated, 38 Tbps multiplexer chip sends instructions via light, not electricity, transfers 4.75T LLM parameters/sec.

China’s 741,700 robotics-related companies installed 55% of the world’s industrial robots last year – 7x the US rate. Unitree claims to have 60% global market share in quadruped robots and leads the world leader in sophisticated humanoids.

Economy & Trade

The US pursues capital-intensive technological supremacy while China relies on market warfare. This is critical for navigating their rivalry.

By 2027, the gold industry must balance industrial growth with national security, capitalize on China's strengths in gold smelting, processing and operational management. China mined 377 tonnes and consumed 985 tonnes of gold in 2024.

China’s 1 billion 5G connections spur a digital transformation that will contribute $2 trillion to the economy by 2030, 8.3% of GDP, when 5G penetration will be 124%.

The E-commerce sector has grown 8.5% from January to May 2025.

Tesla beat CATL and BYD to build a $556M grid-scale battery storage station, the